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Only a year ago people in the very same church would talk to me without looking back. Now they won’t say a word even though I have official permission. The first time I came to Iran I was working for a newspaper. Now I am working for a television channel. I could see very well how tired the Iranians are of journalists who tell them one thing and then show something completely different.
“Don’t be offended. You know, Western television can make even the most harmless footage look as though people are being discriminated against here. Have you ever seen a Christian persecuted in Iran?” a girl asks me, dodging my camera."
“Christians took part in the war with Iraq. Have you heard of that war? We have over 100 shahids and more than a 100 people missing. About 30 were heavily wounded and incapacitated. The shahids are martyrs. Have you heard of Christian martyrs?”
“We have two deputies in the parliament, one from the southern provinces and one from the north,”
“Do you know what a constitution is?”, he asks.
“We have Christian schools, Armenian schools funded by the state. Our church alone has 24 schools in Tehran, and we have kindergartens as well,”
“We also have our own gym, and the state allocated funds to equip it with a praying room, a namaz-khane.”
"Like any other religious community, we are tax exempt. The local authorities are helping us. For example, they arrange food deliveries for the elderly at our hospice. They send in gardeners to tend to our gardens. We get to pay a special electricity fare, just like the mosques,” says the warden.
“Our hospice currently accommodates 30 elders, and our canteen caters for them and an additional 60 people. City authorities help us with insurance; they pay for the services of both doctors and chefs. Some doctors help us free of charge, some charge half the price – and they do it out of respect for Christians, that’s the tradition here,” says Emmanuil Shirani
At Palestine Square, opposite a mosque called Al-Aqsa, is a synagogue where Jews of this ancient city gather at dawn. Over the entrance is a banner saying: “Congratulations on the 30th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution from the Jewish community of Esfahan.”
The Jews of Iran remove their shoes, wind leather straps around their arms to attach phylacteries and take their places. Soon the sinuous murmur of Hebrew prayer courses through the cluttered synagogue with its lovely rugs and unhappy plants. Soleiman Sedighpoor, an antiques dealer with a store full of treasures, leads the service from a podium under a chandelier.
Originally posted by FriedrichNeecher
Nothing speaks of peaceful co-existence like a double layer of 10 ft high ultra security steel walls with a remote controlled steel containment gate. There are many places in the US that have such gates, although much less sturdy and imposing in design, we call them prisons.
Seems like few pics show the perimeter, most are aimed high for no good purpose other than poor picture composition. Wonder what they call the dhimmi tax, the jizyah, in farsi? After all, if they follow the koran 'religiously' as state policiy, it's a specific commandment in it if you bothered to read it...
Originally posted by TheWalkingFox
Are you shocked that Iran isn't following the quran with fundamentalist fervor? I'm not. Iran lives in the 20th century just like the rest of us, after all, despite the lies you get told.
Originally posted by Misoir
For all the negative attributes the Western media and governments try and apply to Iran they cannot be further from the truth. While Iran is definitely not a secular and completely tolerant society towards non-Muslims they are accepting and treat the religious minorities with respect.
Iran's Intelligence Ministry has arrested a number of the followers of the banned Baha'i cult on charges of promoting their perverse beliefs in kindergartens.
“The investigations indicated the existence of an extensive network in which these individuals pursued and carried their various programs upon orders from their central [organization],” Bam Prosecutor Mohammad-Reza Sanjari said on Saturday.
Sanjari added that the detainees promoted their perverse beliefs in a number of kindergartens in Tehran, Kerman and Bam in the form of cultural and educational activities, ISNA reported.